New mobilities research post at LANCASTER

Research Associate Sociology
Salary: £25,251 to £26,629
Closing Date: Friday 05 October 2012
Reference: A500

You will work with colleagues at Birmingham, Southampton and UCL, on an
EPSRC funded Research Programme entitled 'Liveable Cities'. This post,
directed by Professor John Urry, is concerned to identify, document and
assess the multiple ways of reducing the transport of people and objects.

You should have a PhD (or award within 12 months) and a background in
social science/design/geography. You will also have a thorough
understanding and working knowledge of the field of transport/mobilities.

This post is to begin January 2013, and is fixed term for 20 months.

Informal enquiries may be made to John Urry, (j.urry@lancaster.ac.uk).


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This RA post involves working with colleagues at Birmingham (managerial
centre), Lancaster, Southampton and University College London, on a major
EPSRC Research Programme entitled Liveable Cities which runs 2012-7.

The Lancaster team (Profs Rachel Cooper, John Urry and Dr Chris Boyko) is
concerned with how to design cities that bring about very large reductions
in carbon and related emissions and which do not worsen and hopefully
improve people's levels of 'wellbeing'. Much of the research will involve
the detailed design and engineering of future cites.

This particular post involves working with John Urry and is concerned to
identify, document and assess the multiple ways of reducing the transport
of people and objects. It will mainly involve desk/web research and visits
of test sites to examine innovative ways in which the physical transport of
people and objects has been reduced in certain places and could be reduced
in the future.

It will be necessary to examine what is achieved through physically moving
people and objects about and how these uses or benefits of movement are not
lost and could be enhanced. The material gathered in this project will feed
into the design process of the case-studies being undertaken in this
Research Programme. In particular wellbeing indicators will be developed
relating to transport/mobilities and we will consider how wellbeing may be
developed or enhanced even if the scale of the physical movement of both
people and objects is being reduced.

Candidates should have a PhD (or award within 12 months) and a background
in social science/design/geography. They should also have a thorough
understanding and working knowledge of the field of transport/mobilities.
They should also have a demonstrated research record and potential to
publish in top-quality, peer-reviewed international conferences and
journals.

Liveable Cities is a multi-disciplinary project, bringing together
researchers from a wide range of disciplines—social science, engineering,
geography, design, business management, environmental science, psychology
and, urban studies. It is a five-year, £6.4M, EPSRC-funded research project
comprising four universities, led by the University of Birmingham and
including Lancaster University, University College London and the
University of Southampton.

This RA will work within the Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe). This
Centre has promoted
the study of 'mobilities', a new interdisciplinary field partially
established by CeMoRe since its
establishment in 2003. Mobilities research encompasses the analysis of the
global, national and local
movements of people, objects, capital, information and material objects,
and how they combine
together to engender economic and social patterns. CeMoRe houses the major
ISI ranked journal
Mobilities. For more detail see
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/centres/cemore/index.php.

CeMoRe is housed within the Sociology Department at Lancaster University,
which is one of the
most highly regarded of such departments. Lancaster Sociology has played a
central role in the
global development of sociology. It was ranked as being in the top 5
departments in the assessment
of research conducted in the UK in 2008. It has always been top-rated in
such assessments. It houses
various major research centres besides CeMoRe, the Centre for Science
Studies, the Centre for
Environmental Change, the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, the
Cultural Political Economy
Research Centre, the ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of
Genomics and the Unesco
Chair in Gender Research Group. There are around 27 teaching staff, 10
research officers and 70 PhD
students.


JOHN URRY, Distinguished Professor, Dept of Sociology, Bowland North,
Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA14YT, UK tel (44)01524 594179, fax
(44)01524594256, j.urry@lancaster.ac.uk. New books:
The Tourist Gaze 3.0 Sage 2011 http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book234297)
Climate Change and Society Polity 2011 (
http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745650364)
Societies beyond Oil Zed 2013 (
http://zedbooks.co.uk/paperback/societies-beyond-oil).